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Eagan/Rosemount: Students collaborate to solve India's ills

By Christopher Magancmagan@pioneerpress.com

Posted:
11/22/2012 12:01:00 AM CST

Updated:
11/22/2012 08:50:12 PM CST

Eagan native Viroopa Volla (20), center, a business student at Harvard, is part of a growing network of students finding unique ways to give back to their Indian birthplace. She seen here with with local participants in Harvard's US-India Initiative at Eagan Community Center in Eagan, Minn., on Wednesday, November 21, 2012. At right is Sylesh Volla, 17 of Eagan.
(Pioneer Press: Ben Garvin)

Viroopa Volla wants to help solve some of the societal problems that plague her Indian birthplace, and she's enlisting students from across the globe to help.

Raised in Eagan, Volla attends Harvard University in Massachusetts and serves as executive president of the school's U.S.-India Initiative. The program aims to address social, political and economic problems in India with help from college students there and across the United States.

Students collaborate through "social entrepreneurship" to develop solutions to problems like water pollution, transportation congestion or limited access to quality health care. The solutions they propose have the potential to win funding and be scaled up for implementation.

Volla sees the initiative as a way students can have a lasting impact.

"There are a lot of clubs and conferences out there that bring people together, but nothing ever really comes out of it," she said. "I've always tried to stick to things that can produce some sort of impact or tangible results."

The initiative already has held two summer conferences that have yielded ideas, like ways to improve the bicycle rickshaw, a prominent mode of transportation in India. Throughout the school year, students keep in touch and brainstorm through social networks.

Now, Volla is helping the initiative expand. Several chapters recently have been founded in colleges and high schools across the Twin Cities, including Eagan and Rosemount.

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"There are so many great things students can do," Volla said. "Our mission is to connect students from the U.S. and India."

Volla recruited students like Alekhya Tallapaka, a 16-year-old junior at Rosemount High School, to start their own chapters.

Members of these new groups met in Eagan on Wednesday, Nov. 21, at a workshop with Volla.

Tallapaka also was born in India and moved to the United States at a young age. Tallapaka's parents, however, "never let me forget my roots," she said.

Alekhya Tallapaka, 16 of Rosemount, center, and other students gathered at as part of Harvard's US-India Initiative at Eagan Community Center in Eagan, Minn., on Wednesday, November 21, 2012.
(Pioneer Press: Ben Garvin)

That influence has given Tallapaka a detailed understanding of some of her birth country's biggest challenges.

"Living here, a lot of remorse has built up in me because so many people don't have as much as I do," she said. "If I can help fix a problem, even if it is small, it has an impact."

Offshoots like Tallapaka's group are still new, but Volla hopes to soon coordinate their efforts with those of the larger group at Harvard. She plans to highlight their work in a digital publication released twice a year.

Volla is studying economics and global health policy and hopes to leverage the skills she's learned through the initiative to improve Indian women's access to health care. She encourages her fellow students not to wait until after graduation to try to make a difference.

"At the end of the day, students can have an amazing impact," she said.